Kipp is confused

Kipp is confused

Rera is going global, say top officials. Doesn’t the authority have enough to do in Dubai?

May 18, 2009 10:54 by Dana El Baltaji

Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) is going global under the acronym Menares, senior officials said on Sunday.

Menares, which stands for the Middle East and North Africa Real Estate Society, is already working with international authorities and societies, including the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), the World Association of Valuation Organisation (Wavo), the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Asian Public Real Estate Association (Aprea) and the Urban Land Institute (Uli), reports Gulf News.

“We are in the final stages of establishing Menares. We are aiming to build a professional real estate market and are serious about being first, globally,” said Mahmoud Al Burai, director of the real estate sector development department at Rera.

“Everyone is looking at Dubai. Everyone is looking at Rera as the reference,” Al Burai said.

But does everyone know about the rental index? Or the time it takes to get anything done at the Rera office? Or how about the numerous employees who, in between coffee breaks and long phone conversation, give perplexed property investors offhand (and often misleading) instructions on how to get their cases resolved?

There’s no question that Rera is an important authority in Dubai, and Kipp lauds its handful of productive employees who try to improve regulations in the emirate’s real estate market. But the authority has only been established for two years, and it appears to be learning as it’s going along.

And Rera has its work cut out for it; Dubai’s property market is young and volatile, and imposing regulations on developers and investors who are used to the ‘wild-west’ approach to buying and selling units is excruciating work.

The reality, however, is that it has made mistakes, otherwise there wouldn’t be over 500 cases pending at Dubai’s Property Court. And we suspect there would be a lot more cases pending if Dubai’s laws were clearer and if legal fees weren’t so exorbitant.

How, then, can Rera go global? Shouldn’t it sort out its own problems first, and focus on fixing Dubai’s real estate fiasco before advising other governments on how to regulate their markets?